Living your life according to design!
Part 3: What is God like? — Love
In: Living your life according to design! Part 1: The Problem Defined,
I contended that having a right understanding of our identity will have tremendous implications on how we will live our lives. I argued that we have been created by God and for God and that, as contingent beings created in his image, we must by necessity have been created with characteristics that are like his own. Moreover, because of this reality, the reason why we are having so many problems and that there is so much suffering and injustice in this world is because we are not living according to how God has truly designed us to live.
Furthermore, I contended that the reason why this is the case is because what we choose to believe and think about ourselves is not consistent with actual reality due to the fact that what we are taught at school and at home and elsewhere is devoid of the correct knowledge and understanding of God and his ways, and it is for this reason that we need to know and understand what God is like.
You might be thinking, “Well, which God?” I discussed this issue in Part 1. Please refer to it first, if you are unconvinced that it has to be the God of the Bible, otherwise you will have loads of objections to what I discuss from this point on.
Having discussed in: Living your life according to design! Part 2: What is God like? — Creator and Spirit,
stating that due to the Law of Causality, I contended that because God is Creator and Spirit, we are creative and spiritual beings as well and not just bodies. I discussed why that is relevant to us.
Now I am going to examine our next God given attribute, which best describes what we are like.
Love: God is relational, and since he is also LOVE, he cannot but ALWAYS love others. We, just like him, are also relational. Therefore, like our Creator, we are also meant to ALWAYS love others.
We are social beings. We have been created for relationships. In fact, we need to be in relationships because we function best and are more productive in a community setting than in isolation. Moreover, we also feel most fulfilled and safe when we are in a community. This is nothing new, I realise, but please bear with me. I need to contextualise this.
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:5–6)
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for ( Lit corresponding to) him.” (Genesis 2:18)
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labour. 10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.11 Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? 12 And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. (Ecclesiastes 4:9–12)
We have been created according to God’s primary design for us: to love. This is so because God is love, (1 John 4:8). This therefore means that the primary reason we exist is to serve God’s designated purpose for our lives. We are meant to lovingly serve God by serving others according to his design for us, and all of this is to be done as he has done for us. I will explain.
For example, I am using this laptop to fulfil a specific purpose of mine, which I believe God has given me, and which as I fulfil it, will give and does give me great pleasure, and which as a consequence also gives God great pleasure when I do it. This was the case also for Eric Liddell when he fulfilled his God-given purpose for his life:
I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure. — Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire.
You see, I am trying to communicate with you, the reader. My intent is to be a blessing to you as I transmit some information through what I type that I believe to be relevant and important for you to know, and which I believe God wants you to know and understand about why you are in this world. He wishes for you to know how you are going to lead a purposeful and meaningful life.
I contend that we need to understand that we are only truly living when we are serving (God by serving others), but not merely serving; we need to be serving according to how we have been designed to serve: namely lovingly and also not compulsively, but freely from the heart and according to our gifts, talents and abilities, which God has placed in us. To the extent that we are fulfilling that designated purpose, is to the extent that we will experience life’s joys in all of their fullness.
Moreover, imagine now the benefits of our being able to do this, as the Most Rev Michael Curry said in his Royal Wedding address:
With that in mind, what are we called to do?
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12–13)
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16)
Eric Liddell believed that God had called him for a purpose; to go as a missionary to China. God had so filled Eric with his love and concern for the Chinese people that he was willing to lay down his life, and ultimately did for them in a Japanese internment camp in China. He believed God’s purpose for him was to preach the gospel to them, but Eric Liddell was also designed to run fast.
You see, when he was doing what he was gifted to do, he was fulfilling a purpose of God which corresponded with that aspect of his life. Amongst other things, he was not only meant to be a preacher of the gospel or a missionary, he was also meant to be an athlete. He was designed or gifted by God to do both things. The following brief account of his life reveals the heroically inspiring life of sacrificial love for God and others that he lived out:
Yes, we are only truly living our lives fully when we are lovingly relating to God first and then to other people; when we are lovingly serving God and others sacrificially. Whatever our gifts and talents may be; whatever we end up doing, we need to do it all out of worship for him. The goal of our loving service is for his pleasure and not for any self-serving or self-gratifying or aggrandising motivation. Worship is the way we demonstrate our humble and loving devotion to him. This is because worship and service are used interchangeably in Scripture:
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only’” (Luke 4:5–8).
It is imperative that we first learn to carry this out in our families. It is there that we are meant to have our most basic and intimate relationships, and it is because of our relationships at home as children that enable us to do this. It is primarily because of our parents and older siblings that we will be able to go out into our communities to take our place in society where we would be called upon to then love our “neighbours”. When we first leave home to go to nursery or kindergarten or start primary school, we will then need to be learning from our teachers (alongside the continued input provided by our parents and older siblings) what we will need for our life in the work force. This is how the Bible puts it:
Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)
You could say, “Train up a child according to design…” When a child is born, God knows who the child is because he formed him or her in his or her mother’s womb. The parents and other carers (and the child) have yet to discover the innate temperament strengths and weaknesses and gifts, talents and abilities that the child possesses that make him or her uniquely special, but, having examined the child’s heart, God knows everything about him or her (Psalm 139:1).
Since parents and other carers don’t know what God knows about the child in their care, they are exhorted to do this by first and foremost cultivating their own relationship with God, modelling this for the children so that the children may learn everything that they need to know which is tailor made for them in enabling them to find their place in society or service role in society, which is best suited for them.
Besides the morals and values that children need to embrace in order to develop their characters, the parents, carers and children together with God’s help need to ascertain what interests them and what they are naturally gifted at. They then will need to harness the skills and tools that they will be required to have under their belts when they are led by God to fulfil their service roles in society.
This is the reason why God wishes to put us all into loving family units and within caring communities. He gives us other people (our parents, siblings, friends and others) who are meant to aid us in discovering what our God-given gifts, talents and abilities are, and to encourage us to learn from one another how to constructively put them to use for the betterment of society; to support one another as we play our respective part as contributors rather than takers.
It is imperative, therefore, that we learn to put others first, for that is what servants do. We must learn how to love one another as God has loved us, namely sacrificially and from the heart (1 Peter 1:22). There are many practical things that can be done:
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honour; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practising hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect (Lit take thought of) what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. (Romans 12:9–18)
But in order to be able to do that, we will need to have different attitudes, which don’t come naturally to us, hence the reason why we will need to be in a relationship with God first. It presupposes that we have one first with him before we will be able to do that:
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from (Lit according to) selfishness (or contentiousness) or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in (or among) yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (i.e. utilised or asserted), 7 but emptied Himself (i.e. laid aside His privileges), taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:1–8).
It is therefore imperative that we cultivate such relationships. So, it is with that in mind that I will discuss in the next section the next attributes of God which best describe him: Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Husband:
